WWE made a huge splash at Money in the Bank 2019 when a returning Brock Lesnar shocked the world and won the men's MITB briefcase.
Heading into the pay-per-view, a report emerged indicating that WWE had plans to utilize this year's match to create a new star after the previous two winners, Braun Strowman and Baron Corbin, were deemed to be colossal failures by those within WWE. Ironically enough, Corbin and Strowman both originally found themselves set to perform in this year's Money in the Bank match, and there was fear that WWE would continues its massive push of Corbin by giving him yet another MITB victory or pull a repeat with Strowman, who wound up being removed from the bout, after his lackluster run with the briefcase last year.
But with WWE reportedly scaling back on Strowman's push yet again and Raw viewership data indicating that Corbin is a major turnoff to TV viewers, WWE wisely decided to go another route. Too bad it was the same route WWE has taken over the past few years.
On the path to Money in the Bank, WWE had actually established many potentially intriguing winners of the match, including Andrade and Drew McIntyre. Truth be told, there was a case to be made for just about every star in this match ultimately winning it as this year's bout featured a fantastic mix of rising talent on both the babyface and the heel side. At a time when WWE's fan base values stellar in-ring work more than perhaps ever before, those fans likely would have been more than satisfied with wins for Ricochet, Finn Balor, Andrade or Ali. Even Strowman wouldn't have been a bad choice if plans were to utilize "The Monster in the Bank" more effectively this time around.
Giving the briefcase to Corbin would have been nothing short of a disaster, and the same could be said for Lesnar, who has dominated Raw's title picture for the past few years and, after emerging as a surprise entrant at Money in the Bank and winning the bout, will undoubtedly do so again. Lesnar has been one of the focal points of Raw over the past year, during which Raw's TV viewership dropped by a staggering 25%, its ratings went down a whopping 14% and its live event attendance plummeted by 11%. Of course, Lesnar can't take all of the blame for that, but it certainly stands to reason that his enormous push played an equally as large role in the downfall of the red brand due to how downright unwatchable the show has been at times with him functioning as an absentee champion.
Because Lesnar's run as the most pushed heel on Raw has been, for the most part, a total snooze-fest, many WWE fans breathed a collective sigh of relief when he lost the Universal title to Seth Rollins at WrestleMania 35. Instead of going with the more sensible choice of moving on from Lesnar as the focal point of the title picture, however, Lesnar is now Mr. Money in the Bank amid rumors he's set to rekindle his Universal title feud with Rollins in route to Super Showdown.
At a time when Raw viewership has plunged to historic lows and SmackDown has followed suit, WWE needs to conduct a thorough analysis of what's working and what isn't. WWE likely has the internal viewership numbers that could paint a better picture of who is or isn't drawing on TV, but all you have to do is look at WWE's decreasing overall viewership to see that Lesnar's two runs as Universal Champion simply didn't work, despite WWE thinking he's such a massive draw.
Because the Money in the Bank briefcase is supposed to be utilized as a tool to elevate stars who are talented, over with the crowd and yet to be solidified as main eventers, someone like Lesnar, arguably the most pushed star in WWE, didn't need it. Not in the slightest. Essentially every other person in the men's Money in the Bank match other than Randy Orton did, however, which is why WWE found itself in a rare situation in which nearly any outcome of the bout would have been accepted by the majority of fans, albeit for different reasons.
Until WWE threw a major curveball, likely due to pressure from TV executives.
As many mistakes as WWE has made with its booking in recent years, it's hard not to view this is yet another one.
Indeed, WWE took one giant step backward at Money in the Bank, and soon enough, it will take another one when Lesnar becomes champion yet again.
Blake Oestriecher is an elementary school teacher by day and a sports writer by night. He’s a contributor to @ForbesSports, where he primarily covers WWE. You can follow him on Twitter @BOestriecher.
